---
title: "On the Nature of Things · De Rerum Natura"
author: "Lucretius"
translator: "William Ellery Leonard"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 14 of 18
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucretius-de-rerum-natura/14/
cite: "Lucretius, tr. William Ellery Leonard, On the Nature of Things · De Rerum Natura, section 14. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucretius-de-rerum-natura/14/"
---

# On the Nature of Things · De Rerum Natura

*Lucretius, tr. William Ellery Leonard*

Epicurus’ universe of atoms and void, set out in verse to free us from the fear of the gods and of death.

> Latin: from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, phi0550.phi001, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: William Ellery Leonard, from the Perseus Digital Library (phi0550.phi001.perseus-eng1). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (line numbers), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## 14. Book V · lines 495–987

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucretius-de-rerum-natura/14/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucretius-de-rerum-natura/14/#p-N

[¶0] Thus, then, the massy weight of earth stood firm
With now concreted body, when (as 'twere)
All of the slime of the world, heavy and gross,
Had run together and settled at the bottom,
Like lees or bilge. Then ocean, then the air,
Then ether herself, the fraught-with-fire, were all
Left with their liquid bodies pure and free,
And each more lighter than the next below;
And ether, most light and liquid of the three,
Floats on above the long aerial winds,
Nor with the brawling of the winds of air
Mingles its liquid body. It doth leave
All there- those under-realms below her heights-
There to be overset in whirlwinds wild,-
Doth leave all there to brawl in wayward gusts,
Whilst, gliding with a fixed impulse still,
Itself it bears its fires along. For, lo,
That ether can flow thus steadily on, on,
With one unaltered urge, the Pontus proves-
That sea which floweth forth with fixed tides,
Keeping one onward tenor as it glides.

> Latin: Sic igitur terrae concreto corpore pondus
constitit atque omnis mundi quasi limus in imum
confluxit gravis et subsedit funditus ut faex;
inde mare, inde aër, inde aether ignifer ipse
corporibus liquidis sunt omnia pura relicta
et leviora aliis alia, et liquidissimus aether
atque levissimus aërias super influit auras
nec liquidum corpus turbantibus aëris auris
commiscet; sinit haec violentis omnia verti
turbinibus, sinit incertis turbare procellis,
ipse suos ignis certo fert impete labens.
nam modice fluere atque uno posse aethera nisu
significat Pontos, mare certo quod fluit aestu
unum labendi conservans usque tenorem.

[¶1] Now let us sing what makes the stars to move.
In first place, if the mighty sphere of heaven
Revolveth round, then needs we must aver
That on the upper and the under pole
Presses a certain air, and from without
Confines them and encloseth at each end;
And that, moreover, another air above
Streams on athwart the top of the sphere and tends
In same direction as are rolled along
The glittering stars of the eternal world;
Or that another still streams on below
To whirl the sphere from under up and on
In opposite direction- as we see
The rivers turn the wheels and water-scoops.
It may be also that the heavens do all
Remain at rest, whilst yet are borne along
The lucid constellations; either because
Swift tides of ether are by sky enclosed,
And whirl around, seeking a passage out,
And everywhere make roll the starry fires
Through the Summanian regions of the sky;
Or else because some air, streaming along
From an eternal quarter off beyond,
Whileth the driven fires, or, then, because
The fires themselves have power to creep along,
Going wherever their food invites and calls,
And feeding their flaming bodies everywhere
Throughout the sky. Yet which of these is cause
In this our world 'tis hard to say for sure;
But what can be throughout the universe,
In divers worlds on divers plan create,
This only do I show, and follow on
To assign unto the motions of the stars
Even several causes which 'tis possible
Exist throughout the universal All;
Of which yet one must be the cause even here
Which maketh motion for our constellations.
Yet to decide which one of them it be
Is not the least the business of a man
Advancing step by cautious step, as I.

> Latin: Motibus astrorum nunc quae sit causa canamus.
principio magnus caeli si vortitur orbis,
ex utraque polum parti premere aëra nobis
dicendum est extraque tenere et claudere utrimque;
inde alium supra fluere atque intendere eodem
quo volvenda micant aeterni sidera mundi;
aut alium supter, contra qui subvehat orbem,
ut fluvios versare rotas atque austra videmus.
est etiam quoque uti possit caelum omne manere
in statione, tamen cum lucida signa ferantur,
sive quod inclusi rapidi sunt aetheris aestus
quaerentesque viam circum versantur et ignes
passim per caeli volvunt summania templa,
sive aliunde fluens alicunde extrinsecus aër
versat agens ignis, sive ipsi serpere possunt,
quo cuiusque cibus vocat atque invitat euntis,
flammea per caelum pascentis corpora passim.
nam quid in hoc mundo sit eorum ponere certum
difficilest; sed quid possit fiatque per omne
in variis mundis varia ratione creatis,
id doceo plurisque sequor disponere causas,
motibus astrorum quae possint esse per omne;
e quibus una tamen sit et haec quoque causa necessest,
quae vegeat motum signis; sed quae sit earum
praecipere haud quaquamst pedetemptim progredientis.

[¶2] And that the earth may there abide at rest
In the mid-region of the world, it needs
Must vanish bit by bit in weight and lessen,
And have another substance underneath,
Conjoined to it from its earliest age
In linked unison with the vasty world's
Realms of the air in which it roots and lives.
On this account, the earth is not a load,
Nor presses down on winds of air beneath;
Even as unto a man his members be
Without all weight- the head is not a load
Unto the neck; nor do we feel the whole
Weight of the body to centre in the feet.
But whatso weights come on us from without,
Weights laid upon us, these harass and chafe,
Though often far lighter. For to such degree
It matters always what the innate powers
Of any given thing may be. The earth
Was, then, no alien substance fetched amain,
And from no alien firmament cast down
On alien air; but was conceived, like air,
In the first origin of this the world,
As a fixed portion of the same, as now
Our members are seen to be a part of us.
Besides, the earth, when of a sudden shook
By the big thunder, doth with her motion shake
All that's above her- which she ne'er could do
By any means, were earth not bounden fast
Unto the great world's realms of air and sky:
For they cohere together with common roots,
Conjoined both, even from their earliest age,
In linked unison. Aye, seest thou not
That this most subtle energy of soul
Supports our body, though so heavy a weight,-
Because, indeed, 'tis with it so conjoined
In linked unison? What power, in sum,
Can raise with agile leap our body aloft,
Save energy of mind which steers the limbs?
Now seest thou not how powerful may be
A subtle nature, when conjoined it is
With heavy body, as air is with the earth
Conjoined, and energy of mind with us?

> Latin: Terraque ut in media mundi regione quiescat,
evanescere paulatim et decrescere pondus
convenit atque aliam naturam supter habere
ex ineunte aevo coniunctam atque uniter aptam
partibus aëriis mundi, quibus insita vivit.
propterea non est oneri neque deprimit auras,
ut sua cuique homini nullo sunt pondere membra
nec caput est oneri collo nec denique totum
corporis in pedibus pondus sentimus inesse;
at quae cumque foris veniunt inpostaque nobis
pondera sunt laedunt, permulto saepe minora.
usque adeo magni refert quid quaeque queat res.
sic igitur tellus non est aliena repente
allata atque auris aliunde obiecta alienis,
sed pariter prima concepta ab origine mundi
certaque pars eius, quasi nobis membra videntur.
Praeterea grandi tonitru concussa repente
terra supra quae se sunt concutit omnia motu;
quod facere haut ulla posset ratione, nisi esset
partibus aëriis mundi caeloque revincta;
nam communibus inter se radicibus haerent
ex ineunte aevo coniuncta atque uniter aucta.
Nonne vides etiam quam magno pondere nobis
sustineat corpus tenuissima vis animai,
propterea quia tam coniuncta atque uniter apta est?
Denique iam saltu pernici tollere corpus
quid potis est nisi vis animae, quae membra gubernat?
iamne vides quantum tenuis natura valere
possit, ubi est coniuncta gravi cum corpore, ut aër
coniunctus terris et nobis est animi vis?

[¶3] Nor can the sun's wheel larger be by much
Nor its own blaze much less than either seems
Unto our senses. For from whatso spaces
Fires have the power on us to cast their beams
And blow their scorching exhalations forth
Against our members, those same distances
Take nothing by those intervals away
From bulk of flames; and to the sight the fire
Is nothing shrunken. Therefore, since the heat
And the outpoured light of skiey sun
Arrive our senses and caress our limbs,
Form too and bigness of the sun must look
Even here from earth just as they really be,
So that thou canst scarce nothing take or add.
And whether the journeying moon illuminate
The regions round with bastard beams, or throw
From off her proper body her own light,-
Whichever it be, she journeys with a form
Naught larger than the form doth seem to be
Which we with eyes of ours perceive. For all
The far removed objects of our gaze
Seem through much air confused in their look
Ere minished in their bigness. Wherefore, moon,
Since she presents bright look and clear-cut form,
May there on high by us on earth be seen
Just as she is with extreme bounds defined,
And just of the size. And lastly, whatso fires
Of ether thou from earth beholdest, these
Thou mayst consider as possibly of size
The least bit less, or larger by a hair
Than they appear- since whatso fires we view
Here in the lands of earth are seen to change
From time to time their size to less or more
Only the least, when more or less away,
So long as still they bicker clear, and still
Their glow's perceived.

> Latin: Nec nimio solis maior rota nec minor ardor
esse potest, nostris quam sensibus esse videtur.
nam quibus e spatiis cumque ignes lumina possunt
adiicere et calidum membris adflare vaporem,
nil magnis intervallis de corpore libant
flammarum, nihil ad speciem est contractior ignis.
proinde, calor quoniam solis lumenque profusum
perveniunt nostros ad sensus et loca fulgent,
forma quoque hinc solis debet filumque videri,
nil adeo ut possis plus aut minus addere vere.
[perveniunt nostros ad sensus et loca fulgent]
lunaque sive notho fertur loca lumine lustrans,
sive suam proprio iactat de corpore lucem,
quidquid id est, nihilo fertur maiore figura
quam, nostris oculis qua cernimus, esse videtur.
nam prius omnia, quae longe semota tuemur
aëra per multum, specie confusa videntur
quam minui filum. quapropter luna necesse est,
quandoquidem claram speciem certamque figuram
praebet, ut est oris extremis cumque notata,
quanta quoquest, tanta hinc nobis videatur in alto.
postremo quos cumque vides hinc aetheris ignes,
scire licet perquam pauxillo posse minores
esse vel exigua maioris parte brevique.
quandoquidem quos cumque in terris cernimus [ignes],
dum tremor [et] clarus dum cernitur ardor eorum,
perparvom quiddam inter dum mutare videntur
alteram utram in partem filum, quo longius absunt.

[¶4] Nor need there be for men
Astonishment that yonder sun so small
Can yet send forth so great a light as fills
Oceans and all the lands and sky aflood,
And with its fiery exhalations steeps
The world at large. For it may be, indeed,
That one vast-flowing well-spring of the whole
Wide world from here hath opened and out-gushed,
And shot its light abroad; because thuswise
The elements of fiery exhalations
From all the world around together come,
And thuswise flow into a bulk so big
That from one single fountain-head may stream
This heat and light. And seest thou not, indeed,
How widely one small water-spring may wet
The meadow-lands at times and flood the fields?
'Tis even possible, besides, that heat
From forth the sun's own fire, albeit that fire
Be not a great, may permeate the air
With the fierce hot- if but, perchance, the air
Be of condition and so tempered then
As to be kindled, even when beat upon
Only by little particles of heat-
Just as we sometimes see the standing grain
Or stubble straw in conflagration all
From one lone spark. And possibly the sun,
Agleam on high with rosy lampion,
Possesses about him with invisible heats
A plenteous fire, by no effulgence marked,
So that he maketh, he, the Fraught-with-fire,
Increase to such degree the force of rays.

> Latin: Illud item non est mirandum, qua ratione
tantulus ille queat tantum sol mittere lumen,
quod maria ac terras omnis caelumque rigando
compleat et calido perfundat cuncta vapore.
[quanta quoquest tanta hinc nobis videatur in alto]
nam licet hinc mundi patefactum totius unum
largifluum fontem scatere atque erumpere lumen,
ex omni mundo quia sic elementa vaporis
undique conveniunt et sic coniectus eorum
confluit, ex uno capite hic ut profluat ardor.
nonne vides etiam quam late parvus aquai
prata riget fons inter dum campisque redundet?
est etiam quoque uti non magno solis ab igni
aëra percipiat calidis fervoribus ardor,
opportunus ita est si forte et idoneus aër,
ut queat accendi parvis ardoribus ictus;
quod genus inter dum segetes stipulamque videmus
accidere ex una scintilla incendia passim.
forsitan et rosea sol alte lampade lucens
possideat multum caecis fervoribus ignem
circum se, nullo qui sit fulgore notatus,
aestifer ut tantum radiorum exaugeat ictum.

[¶5] Nor is there one sure cause revealed to men
How the sun journeys from his summer haunts
On to the mid-most winter turning-points
In Capricorn, the thence reverting veers
Back to solstitial goals of Cancer; nor
How 'tis the moon is seen each month to cross
That very distance which in traversing
The sun consumes the measure of a year.
I say, no one clear reason hath been given
For these affairs. Yet chief in likelihood
Seemeth the doctrine which the holy thought
Of great Democritus lays down: that ever
The nearer the constellations be to earth
The less can they by whirling of the sky
Be borne along, because those skiey powers
Of speed aloft do vanish and decrease
In under-regions, and the sun is thus
Left by degrees behind amongst those signs
That follow after, since the sun he lies
Far down below the starry signs that blaze;
And the moon lags even tardier than the sun:
In just so far as is her course removed
From upper heaven and nigh unto the lands,
In just so far she fails to keep the pace
With starry signs above; for just so far
As feebler is the whirl that bears her on,
(Being, indeed, still lower than the sun),
In just so far do all the starry signs,
Circling around, o'ertake her and o'erpass.
Therefore it happens that the moon appears
More swiftly to return to any sign
Along the Zodiac, than doth the sun,
Because those signs do visit her again
More swiftly than they visit the great sun.
It can be also that two streams of air
Alternately at fixed periods
Blow out from transverse regions of the world,
Of which the one may thrust the sun away
From summer-signs to mid-most winter goals
And rigors of the cold, and the other then
May cast him back from icy shades of chill
Even to the heat-fraught regions and the signs
That blaze along the Zodiac. So, too,
We must suppose the moon and all the stars,
Which through the mighty and sidereal years
Roll round in mighty orbits, may be sped
By streams of air from regions alternate.
Seest thou not also how the clouds be sped
By contrary winds to regions contrary,
The lower clouds diversely from the upper?
Then, why may yonder stars in ether there
Along their mighty orbits not be borne
By currents opposite the one to other?

> Latin: Nec ratio solis simplex [et] recta patescit,
quo pacto aestivis e partibus aegocerotis
brumalis adeat flexus atque inde revertens
canceris ut vertat metas ad solstitialis,
lunaque mensibus id spatium videatur obire,
annua sol in quo consumit tempora cursu.
non, inquam, simplex his rebus reddita causast.
nam fieri vel cum primis id posse videtur,
Democriti quod sancta viri sententia ponit,
quanto quaeque magis sint terram sidera propter,
tanto posse minus cum caeli turbine ferri;
evanescere enim rapidas illius et acris
imminui supter viris, ideoque relinqui
paulatim solem cum posterioribus signis,
inferior multo quod sit quam fervida signa.
et magis hoc lunam: quanto demissior eius
cursus abest procul a caelo terrisque propinquat,
tanto posse minus cum signis tendere cursum.
flaccidiore etiam quanto iam turbine fertur
inferior quam sol, tanto magis omnia signa
hanc adipiscuntur circum praeterque feruntur.
propterea fit ut haec ad signum quodque reverti
mobilius videatur, ad hanc quia signa revisunt.
fit quoque ut e mundi transversis partibus aër
alternis certo fluere alter tempore possit,
qui queat aestivis solem detrudere signis
brumalis usque ad flexus gelidumque rigorem,
et qui reiciat gelidis a frigoris umbris
aestiferas usque in partis et fervida signa.
et ratione pari lunam stellasque putandumst,
quae volvunt magnos in magnis orbibus annos,
aëribus posse alternis e partibus ire.
nonne vides etiam diversis nubila ventis
diversas ire in partis inferna supernis?
qui minus illa queant per magnos aetheris orbis
aestibus inter se diversis sidera ferri?

[¶6] But night o'erwhelms the lands with vasty murk
Either when sun, after his diurnal course,
Hath walked the ultimate regions of the sky
And wearily hath panted forth his fires,
Shivered by their long journeying and wasted
By traversing the multitudinous air,
Or else because the self-same force that drave
His orb along above the lands compels
Him then to turn his course beneath the lands.
Matuta also at a fixed hour
Spreadeth the roseate morning out along
The coasts of heaven and deploys the light,
Either because the self-same sun, returning
Under the lands, aspires to seize the sky,
Striving to set it blazing with his rays
Ere he himself appear, or else because
Fires then will congregate and many seeds
Of heat are wont, even at a fixed time,
To stream together- gendering evermore
New suns and light. Just so the story goes
That from the Idaean mountain-tops are seen
Dispersed fires upon the break of day
Which thence combine, as 'twere, into one ball
And form an orb. Nor yet in these affairs
Is aught for wonder that these seeds of fire
Can thus together stream at time so fixed
And shape anew the splendour of the sun.
For many facts we see which come to pass
At fixed time in all things: burgeon shrubs
At fixed time, and at a fixed time
They cast their flowers; and Eld commands the teeth,
At time as surely fixed, to drop away,
And Youth commands the growing boy to bloom
With the soft down and let from both his cheeks
The soft beard fall. And lastly, thunder-bolts,
Snow, rains, clouds, winds, at seasons of the year
Nowise unfixed, all do come to pass.
For where, even from their old primordial start
Causes have ever worked in such a way,
And where, even from the world's first origin,
Thuswise have things befallen, so even now
After a fixed order they come round
In sequence also.

> Latin: At nox obruit ingenti caligine terras,
aut ubi de longo cursu sol ultima caeli
impulit atque suos efflavit languidus ignis
concussos itere et labefactos aëre multo,
aut quia sub terras cursum convortere cogit
vis eadem, supra quae terras pertulit orbem.
Tempore item certo roseam Matuta per oras
aetheris auroram differt et lumina pandit,
aut quia sol idem, sub terras ille revertens,
anticipat caelum radiis accendere temptans,
aut quia conveniunt ignes et semina multa
confluere ardoris consuerunt tempore certo,
quae faciunt solis nova semper lumina gigni;
quod genus Idaeis fama est e montibus altis
dispersos ignis orienti lumine cerni,
inde coire globum quasi in unum et conficere orbem.
nec tamen illud in his rebus mirabile debet
esse, quod haec ignis tam certo tempore possint
semina confluere et solis reparare nitorem.
multa videmus enim, certo quae tempore fiunt
omnibus in rebus. florescunt tempore certo
arbusta et certo dimittunt tempore florem.
nec minus in certo dentes cadere imperat aetas
tempore et inpubem molli pubescere veste
et pariter mollem malis demittere barbam.
fulmina postremo nix imbres nubila venti
non nimis incertis fiunt in partibus anni.
namque ubi sic fuerunt causarum exordia prima
atque ita res mundi cecidere ab origine prima,
conseque quoque iam redeunt ex ordine certo.

[¶7] Likewise, days may wax
Whilst the nights wane, and daylight minished be
Whilst nights do take their augmentations,
Either because the self-same sun, coursing
Under the lands and over in two arcs,
A longer and a briefer, doth dispart
The coasts of ether and divides in twain
His orbit all unequally, and adds,
As round he's borne, unto the one half there
As much as from the other half he's ta'en,
Until he then arrives that sign of heaven
Where the year's node renders the shades of night
Equal unto the periods of light.
For when the sun is midway on his course
Between the blasts of northwind and of south,
Heaven keeps his two goals parted equally,
By virtue of the fixed position old
Of the whole starry Zodiac, through which
That sun, in winding onward, takes a year,
Illumining the sky and all the lands
With oblique light- as men declare to us
Who by their diagrams have charted well
Those regions of the sky which be adorned
With the arranged signs of Zodiac.
Or else, because in certain parts the air
Under the lands is denser, the tremulous
Bright beams of fire do waver tardily,
Nor easily can penetrate that air
Nor yet emerge unto their rising-place:
For this it is that nights in winter time
Do linger long, ere comes the many-rayed
Round Badge of the day. Or else because, as said,
In alternating seasons of the year
Fires, now more quick, and now more slow, are wont
To stream together,- the fires which make the sun
To rise in some one spot- therefore it is
That those men seem to speak the truth [who hold
A new sun is with each new daybreak born].

> Latin: Crescere itemque dies licet et tabescere noctes,
et minui luces, cum sumant augmina noctis,
aut quia sol idem sub terras atque superne
imparibus currens amfractibus aetheris oras
partit et in partis non aequas dividit orbem,
et quod ab alterutra detraxit parte, reponit
eius in adversa tanto plus parte relatus,
donec ad id signum caeli pervenit, ubi anni
nodus nocturnas exaequat lucibus umbras;
nam medio cursu flatus aquilonis et austri
distinet aequato caelum discrimine metas
propter signiferi posituram totius orbis,
annua sol in quo concludit tempora serpens,
obliquo terras et caelum lumine lustrans,
ut ratio declarat eorum qui loca caeli
omnia dispositis signis ornata notarunt.
aut quia crassior est certis in partibus aër,
sub terris ideo tremulum iubar haesitat ignis
nec penetrare potest facile atque emergere ad ortus;
propterea noctes hiberno tempore longae
cessant, dum veniat radiatum insigne diei.
aut etiam, quia sic alternis partibus anni
tardius et citius consuerunt confluere ignes,
qui faciunt solem certa de surgere parte,
propterea fit uti videantur dicere verum.

[¶8] The moon she possibly doth shine because
Strook by the rays of sun, and day by day
May turn unto our gaze her light, the more
She doth recede from orb of sun, until,
Facing him opposite across the world,
She hath with full effulgence gleamed abroad,
And, at her rising as she soars above,
Hath there observed his setting; thence likewise
She needs must hide, as 'twere, her light behind
By slow degrees, the nearer now she glides,
Along the circle of the Zodiac,
From her far place toward fires of yonder sun,-
As those men hold who feign the moon to be
Just like a ball and to pursue a course
Betwixt the sun and earth. There is, again,
Some reason to suppose that moon may roll
With light her very own, and thus display
The varied shapes of her resplendence there.
For near her is, percase, another body,
Invisible, because devoid of light,
Borne on and gliding all along with her,
Which in three modes may block and blot her disk.
Again, she may revolve upon herself,
Like to a ball's sphere- if perchance that be-
One half of her dyed o'er with glowing light,
And by the revolution of that sphere
She may beget for us her varying shapes,
Until she turns that fiery part of her
Full to the sight and open eyes of men;
Thence by slow stages round and back she whirls,
Withdrawing thus the luminiferous part
Of her sphered mass and ball, as, verily,
The Babylonian doctrine of Chaldees,
Refuting the art of Greek astrologers,
Labours, in opposition, to prove sure-
As if, forsooth, the thing for which each fights,
Might not alike be true,- or aught there were
Wherefore thou mightest risk embracing one
More than the other notion. Then, again,
Why a new moon might not forevermore
Created be with fixed successions there
Of shapes and with configurations fixed,
And why each day that bright created moon
Might not miscarry and another be,
In its stead and place, engendered anew,
'Tis hard to show by reason, or by words
To prove absurd- since, lo, so many things
Can be create with fixed successions:
Spring-time and Venus come, and Venus' boy,
The winged harbinger, steps on before,
And hard on Zephyr's foot-prints Mother Flora,
Sprinkling the ways before them, filleth all
With colours and with odours excellent;
Whereafter follows arid Heat, and he
Companioned is by Ceres, dusty one,
And by the Etesian Breezes of the north;
Then cometh Autumn on, and with him steps
Lord Bacchus, and then other Seasons too
And other Winds do follow- the high roar
Of great Volturnus, and the Southwind strong
With thunder-bolts. At last earth's Shortest-Day
Bears on to men the snows and brings again
The numbing cold. And Winter follows her,
His teeth with chills a-chatter. Therefore, 'tis
The less a marvel, if at fixed time
A moon is thus begotten and again
At fixed time destroyed, since things so many
Can come to being thus at fixed time.
Likewise, the sun's eclipses and the moon's
Far occultations rightly thou mayst deem
As due to several causes. For, indeed,
Why should the moon be able to shut out
Earth from the light of sun, and on the side
To earthward thrust her high head under sun,
Opposing dark orb to his glowing beams-
And yet, at same time, one suppose the effect
Could not result from some one other body
Which glides devoid of light forevermore?
Again, why could not sun, in weakened state,
At fixed time for-lose his fires, and then,
When he has passed on along the air
Beyond the regions, hostile to his flames,
That quench and kill his fires, why could not he
Renew his light? And why should earth in turn
Have power to rob the moon of light, and there,
Herself on high, keep the sun hid beneath,
Whilst the moon glideth in her monthly course
Athrough the rigid shadows of the cone?-
And yet, at same time, some one other body
Not have the power to under-pass the moon,
Or glide along above the orb of sun,
Breaking his rays and outspread light asunder?
And still, if moon herself refulgent be
With her own sheen, why could she not at times
In some one quarter of the mighty world
Grow weak and weary, whilst she passeth through
Regions unfriendly to the beams her own?

> Latin: Luna potest solis radiis percussa nitere
inque dies magis [id] lumen convertere nobis
ad speciem, quantum solis secedit ab orbi,
donique eum contra pleno bene lumine fulsit
atque oriens obitus eius super edita vidit;
inde minutatim retro quasi condere lumen
debet item, quanto propius iam solis ad ignem
labitur ex alia signorum parte per orbem;
ut faciunt, lunam qui fingunt esse pilai
consimilem cursusque viam sub sole tenere.
est etiam quare proprio cum lumine possit
volvier et varias splendoris reddere formas;
corpus enim licet esse aliud, quod fertur et una
labitur omnimodis occursans officiensque,
nec potis est cerni, quia cassum lumine fertur.
versarique potest, globus ut, si forte, pilai
dimidia ex parti candenti lumine tinctus,
versandoque globum variantis edere formas,
donique eam partem, quae cumque est ignibus aucta,
ad speciem vertit nobis oculosque patentis;
inde minutatim retro contorquet et aufert
luciferam partem glomeraminis atque pilai;
ut Babylonica Chaldaeum doctrina refutans
astrologorum artem contra convincere tendit,
proinde quasi id fieri nequeat quod pugnat uterque
aut minus hoc illo sit cur amplectier ausis.
denique cur nequeat semper nova luna creari
ordine formarum certo certisque figuris
inque dies privos aborisci quaeque creata
atque alia illius reparari in parte locoque,
difficilest ratione docere et vincere verbis,
ordine cum [videas] tam certo multa creari.
it Ver et Venus et Veneris praenuntius ante
pennatus graditur, Zephyri vestigia propter
Flora quibus mater praespargens ante viai
cuncta coloribus egregiis et odoribus opplet.
inde loci sequitur Calor aridus et comes una
pulverulenta Ceres [et] etesia flabra aquilonum.
inde Autumnus adit, graditur simul Euhius Euan.
inde aliae tempestates ventique secuntur,
altitonans Volturnus et Auster fulmine pollens.
tandem Bruma nives adfert pigrumque rigorem
reddit. Hiemps sequitur crepitans hanc dentibus algu.
quo minus est mirum, si certo tempore luna
gignitur et certo deletur tempore rusus,
cum fieri possint tam certo tempore multa.
Solis item quoque defectus lunaeque latebras
pluribus e causis fieri tibi posse putandumst.
nam cur luna queat terram secludere solis
lumine et a terris altum caput obstruere ei,
obiciens caecum radiis ardentibus orbem,
tempore eodem aliut facere id non posse putetur
corpus, quod cassum labatur lumine semper?
solque suos etiam dimittere languidus ignis
tempore cur certo nequeat recreareque lumen,
cum loca praeteriit flammis infesta per auras,
quae faciunt ignis interstingui atque perire?
et cur terra queat lunam spoliare vicissim
lumine et oppressum solem super ipsa tenere,
menstrua dum rigidas coni perlabitur umbras,
tempore eodem aliud nequeat succurrere lunae
corpus vel supra solis perlabier orbem,
quod radios inter rumpat lumenque profusum?
et tamen ipsa suo si fulget luna nitore,
cur nequeat certa mundi languescere parte,
dum loca luminibus propriis inimica per exit?
[menstrua dum rigidas coni perlabitur umbras].

[¶9] And now to what remains!- Since I've resolved
By what arrangements all things come to pass
Through the blue regions of the mighty world,-
How we can know what energy and cause
Started the various courses of the sun
And the moon's goings, and by what far means
They can succumb, the while with thwarted light,
And veil with shade the unsuspecting lands,
When, as it were, they blink, and then again
With open eye survey all regions wide,
Resplendent with white radiance- I do now
Return unto the world's primeval age
And tell what first the soft young fields of earth
With earliest parturition had decreed
To raise in air unto the shores of light
And to entrust unto the wayward winds.
In the beginning, earth gave forth, around
The hills and over all the length of plains,
The race of grasses and the shining green;
The flowery meadows sparkled all aglow
With greening colour, and thereafter, lo,
Unto the divers kinds of trees was given
An emulous impulse mightily to shoot,
With a free rein, aloft into the air.
As feathers and hairs and bristles are begot
The first on members of the four-foot breeds
And on the bodies of the strong-y-winged,
Thus then the new Earth first of all put forth
Grasses and shrubs, and afterward begat
The mortal generations, there upsprung-
Innumerable in modes innumerable-
After diverging fashions. For from sky
These breathing-creatures never can have dropped,
Nor the land-dwellers ever have come up
Out of sea-pools of salt. How true remains,
How merited is that adopted name
Of earth- "The Mother!"- since from out the earth
Are all begotten. And even now arise
From out the loams how many living things-
Concreted by the rains and heat of the sun.
Wherefore 'tis less a marvel, if they sprang
In Long Ago more many, and more big,
Matured of those days in the fresh young years
Of earth and ether. First of all, the race
Of the winged ones and parti-coloured birds,
Hatched out in spring-time, left their eggs behind;
As now-a-days in summer tree-crickets
Do leave their shiny husks of own accord,
Seeking their food and living. Then it was
This earth of thine first gave unto the day
The mortal generations; for prevailed
Among the fields abounding hot and wet.
And hence, where any fitting spot was given,
There 'gan to grow womb-cavities, by roots
Affixed to earth. And when in ripened time
The age of the young within (that sought the air
And fled earth's damps) had burst these wombs, O then
Would Nature thither turn the pores of earth
And make her spurt from open veins a juice
Like unto milk; even as a woman now
Is filled, at child-bearing, with the sweet milk,
Because all that swift stream of aliment
Is thither turned unto the mother-breasts.
There earth would furnish to the children food;
Warmth was their swaddling cloth, the grass their bed
Abounding in soft down. Earth's newness then
Would rouse no dour spells of the bitter cold,
Nor extreme heats nor winds of mighty powers-
For all things grow and gather strength through time
In like proportions; and then earth was young.

> Latin: Quod superest, quoniam magni per caerula mundi
qua fieri quicquid posset ratione resolvi,
solis uti varios cursus lunaeque meatus
noscere possemus quae vis et causa cieret,
quove modo [possent] offecto lumine obire
et neque opinantis tenebris obducere terras,
cum quasi conivent et aperto lumine rursum
omnia convisunt clara loca candida luce,
nunc redeo ad mundi novitatem et mollia terrae
arva, novo fetu quid primum in luminis oras
tollere et incertis crerint committere ventis.
Principio genus herbarum viridemque nitorem
terra dedit circum collis camposque per omnis,
florida fulserunt viridanti prata colore,
arboribusque datumst variis exinde per auras
crescendi magnum inmissis certamen habenis.
ut pluma atque pili primum saetaeque creantur
quadripedum membris et corpore pennipotentum,
sic nova tum tellus herbas virgultaque primum
sustulit, inde loci mortalia saecla creavit
multa modis multis varia ratione coorta.
nam neque de caelo cecidisse animalia possunt,
nec terrestria de salsis exisse lacunis.
linquitur ut merito maternum nomen adepta
terra sit, e terra quoniam sunt cuncta creata.
multaque nunc etiam existunt animalia terris
imbribus et calido solis concreta vapore;
quo minus est mirum, si tum sunt plura coorta
et maiora, nova tellure atque aethere adulta.
principio genus alituum variaeque volucres
ova relinquebant exclusae tempore verno,
folliculos ut nunc teretis aestate cicadae
lincunt sponte sua victum vitamque petentes.
tum tibi terra dedit primum mortalia saecla.
multus enim calor atque umor superabat in arvis.
hoc ubi quaeque loci regio opportuna dabatur,
crescebant uteri terram radicibus apti;
quos ubi tempore maturo pate fecerat aetas
infantum, fugiens umorem aurasque petessens,
convertebat ibi natura foramina terrae
et sucum venis cogebat fundere apertis
consimilem lactis, sicut nunc femina quaeque
cum peperit, dulci repletur lacte, quod omnis
impetus in mammas convertitur ille alimenti.
terra cibum pueris, vestem vapor, herba cubile
praebebat multa et molli lanugine abundans.
at novitas mundi nec frigora dura ciebat
nec nimios aestus nec magnis viribus auras.
omnia enim pariter crescunt et robora sumunt.

[¶10] Wherefore, again, again, how merited
Is that adopted name of Earth- The Mother!-
Since she herself begat the human race,
And at one well-nigh fixed time brought forth
Each breast that ranges raving round about
Upon the mighty mountains and all birds
Aerial with many a varied shape.
But, lo, because her bearing years must end,
She ceased, like to a woman worn by eld.
For lapsing aeons change the nature of
The whole wide world, and all things needs must take
One status after other, nor aught persists
Forever like itself. All things depart;
Nature she changeth all, compelleth all
To transformation. Lo, this moulders down,
A-slack with weary eld, and that, again,
Prospers in glory, issuing from contempt.
In suchwise, then, the lapsing aeons change
The nature of the whole wide world, and earth
Taketh one status after other. And what
She bore of old, she now can bear no longer,
And what she never bore, she can to-day.
In those days also the telluric world
Strove to beget the monsters that upsprung
With their astounding visages and limbs-
The Man-woman- a thing betwixt the twain,
Yet neither, and from either sex remote-
Some gruesome Boggles orphaned of the feet,
Some widowed of the hands, dumb Horrors too
Without a mouth, or blind Ones of no eye,
Or Bulks all shackled by their legs and arms
Cleaving unto the body fore and aft,
Thuswise, that never could they do or go,
Nor shun disaster, nor take the good they would.
And other prodigies and monsters earth
Was then begetting of this sort- in vain,
Since Nature banned with horror their increase,
And powerless were they to reach unto
The coveted flower of fair maturity,
Or to find aliment, or to intertwine
In works of Venus. For we see there must
Concur in life conditions manifold,
If life is ever by begetting life
To forge the generations one by one:
First, foods must be; and, next, a path whereby
The seeds of impregnation in the frame
May ooze, released from the members all;
Last, the possession of those instruments
Whereby the male with female can unite,
The one with other in mutual ravishments.

> Latin: Quare etiam atque etiam maternum nomen adepta
terra tenet merito, quoniam genus ipsa creavit
humanum atque animal prope certo tempore fudit
omne quod in magnis bacchatur montibus passim,
aëriasque simul volucres variantibus formis.
sed quia finem aliquam pariendi debet habere,
destitit, ut mulier spatio defessa vetusto.
mutat enim mundi naturam totius aetas
ex alioque alius status excipere omnia debet
nec manet ulla sui similis res: omnia migrant,
omnia commutat natura et vertere cogit.
namque aliud putrescit et aevo debile languet,
porro aliud [suc]crescit et [e] contemptibus exit.
sic igitur mundi naturam totius aetas
mutat, et ex alio terram status excipit alter,
quod potuit nequeat, possit quod non tulit ante.
Multaque tum tellus etiam portenta creare
conatast mira facie membrisque coorta,
androgynem, interutras necutrumque utrimque remotum,
orba pedum partim, manuum viduata vicissim,
muta sine ore etiam, sine voltu caeca reperta,
vinctaque membrorum per totum corpus adhaesu,
nec facere ut possent quicquam nec cedere quoquam
nec vitare malum nec sumere quod volet usus.
cetera de genere hoc monstra ac portenta creabat,
ne quiquam, quoniam natura absterruit auctum
nec potuere cupitum aetatis tangere florem
nec reperire cibum nec iungi per Veneris res.
multa videmus enim rebus concurrere debere,
ut propagando possint procudere saecla;
pabula primum ut sint, genitalia deinde per artus
semina qua possint membris manare remissis,
feminaque ut maribus coniungi possit, habere,
mutua qui mutent inter se gaudia uterque.

[¶11] And in the ages after monsters died,
Perforce there perished many a stock, unable
By propagation to forge a progeny.
For whatsoever creatures thou beholdest
Breathing the breath of life, the same have been
Even from their earliest age preserved alive
By cunning, or by valour, or at least
By speed of foot or wing. And many a stock
Remaineth yet, because of use to man,
And so committed to man's guardianship.
Valour hath saved alive fierce lion-breeds
And many another terrorizing race,
Cunning the foxes, flight the antlered stags.
Light-sleeping dogs with faithful heart in breast,
However, and every kind begot from seed
Of beasts of draft, as, too, the woolly flocks
And horned cattle, all, my Memmius,
Have been committed to guardianship of men.
For anxiously they fled the savage beasts,
And peace they sought and their abundant foods,
Obtained with never labours of their own,
Which we secure to them as fit rewards
For their good service. But those beasts to whom
Nature has granted naught of these same things-
Beasts quite unfit by own free will to thrive
And vain for any service unto us
In thanks for which we should permit their kind
To feed and be in our protection safe-
Those, of a truth, were wont to be exposed,
Enshackled in the gruesome bonds of doom,
As prey and booty for the rest, until
Nature reduced that stock to utter death.

> Latin: Multaque tum interiisse animantum saecla necessest
nec potuisse propagando procudere prolem.
nam quae cumque vides vesci vitalibus auris,
aut dolus aut virtus aut denique mobilitas est
ex ineunte aevo genus id tuta⟨TA⟩ reservans.
multaque sunt, nobis ex utilitate sua quae
commendata manent, tutelae tradita nostrae.
principio genus acre leonum saevaque saecla
tutatast virtus, volpes dolus et fuga cervos.
at levisomna canum fido cum pectore corda,
et genus omne quod est veterino semine partum
lanigeraeque simul pecudes et bucera saecla
omnia sunt hominum tutelae tradita, Memmi;
nam cupide fugere feras pacemque secuta
sunt et larga suo sine pabula parta labore,
quae damus utilitatis eorum praemia causa.
at quis nil horum tribuit natura, nec ipsa
sponte sua possent ut vivere nec dare nobis
utilitatem aliquam, quare pateremur eorum
praesidio nostro pasci genus esseque tutum,
scilicet haec aliis praedae lucroque iacebant
indupedita suis fatalibus omnia vinclis,
donec ad interitum genus id natura redegit.

[¶12] But Centaurs ne'er have been, nor can there be
Creatures of twofold stock and double frame,
Compact of members alien in kind,
Yet formed with equal function, equal force
In every bodily part- a fact thou mayst,
However dull thy wits, well learn from this:
The horse, when his three years have rolled away,
Flowers in his prime of vigour; but the boy
Not so, for oft even then he gropes in sleep
After the milky nipples of the breasts,
An infant still. And later, when at last
The lusty powers of horses and stout limbs,
Now weak through lapsing life, do fail with age,
Lo, only then doth youth with flowering years
Begin for boys, and clothe their ruddy cheeks
With the soft down. So never deem, percase,
That from a man and from the seed of horse,
The beast of draft, can Centaurs be composed
Or e'er exist alive, nor Scyllas be-
The half-fish bodies girdled with mad dogs-
Nor others of this sort, in whom we mark
Members discordant each with each; for ne'er
At one same time they reach their flower of age
Or gain and lose full vigour of their frame,
And never burn with one same lust of love,
And never in their habits they agree,
Nor find the same foods equally delightsome-
Sooth, as one oft may see the bearded goats
Batten upon the hemlock which to man
Is violent poison. Once again, since flame
Is wont to scorch and burn the tawny bulks
Of the great lions as much as other kinds
Of flesh and blood existing in the lands,
How could it be that she, Chimaera lone,
With triple body- fore, a lion she;
And aft, a dragon; and betwixt, a goat-
Might at the mouth from out the body belch
Infuriate flame? Wherefore, the man who feigns
Such beings could have been engendered
When earth was new and the young sky was fresh
(Basing his empty argument on new)
May babble with like reason many whims
Into our ears: he'll say, perhaps, that then
Rivers of gold through every landscape flowed,
That trees were wont with precious stones to flower,
Or that in those far aeons man was born
With such gigantic length and lift of limbs
As to be able, based upon his feet,
Deep oceans to bestride or with his hands
To whirl the firmament around his head.
For though in earth were many seeds of things
In the old time when this telluric world
First poured the breeds of animals abroad,
Still that is nothing of a sign that then
Such hybrid creatures could have been begot
And limbs of all beasts heterogeneous
Have been together knit; because, indeed,
The divers kinds of grasses and the grains
And the delightsome trees- which even now
Spring up abounding from within the earth-
Can still ne'er be begotten with their stems
Begrafted into one; but each sole thing
Proceeds according to its proper wont
And all conserve their own distinctions based
In nature's fixed decree.

> Latin: Sed neque Centauri fuerunt nec tempore in ullo
esse queunt duplici natura et corpore bino
ex alienigenis membris compacta, potestas
hinc illinc partis ut sat par esse potissit.
id licet hinc quamvis hebeti cognoscere corde.
principio circum tribus actis impiger annis
floret equus, puer haut quaquam; nam saepe etiam nunc
ubera mammarum in somnis lactantia quaeret.
post ubi equum validae vires aetate senecta
membraque deficiunt fugienti languida vita,
tum demum puerili aevo florenta iuventas
officit et molli vestit lanugine malas;
ne forte ex homine et veterino semine equorum
confieri credas Centauros posse neque esse,
aut rapidis canibus succinctas semimarinis
corporibus Scyllas et cetera de genere horum,
inter se quorum discordia membra videmus;
quae neque florescunt pariter nec robora sumunt
corporibus neque proiciunt aetate senecta
nec simili Venere ardescunt nec moribus unis
conveniunt neque sunt eadem iucunda per artus.
quippe videre licet pinguescere saepe cicuta
barbigeras pecudes, homini quae est acre venenum.
flamma quidem [vero] cum corpora fulva leonum
tam soleat torrere atque urere quam genus omne
visceris in terris quod cumque et sanguinis extet,
qui fieri potuit, triplici cum corpore ut una,
prima leo, postrema draco, media ipsa, Chimaera
ore foras acrem flaret de corpore flammam?
quare etiam tellure nova caeloque recenti
talia qui fingit potuisse animalia gigni,
nixus in hoc uno novitatis nomine inani,
multa licet simili ratione effutiat ore,
aurea tum dicat per terras flumina vulgo
fluxisse et gemmis florere arbusta suësse
aut hominem tanto membrorum esse impete natum,
trans maria alta pedum nisus ut ponere posset
et manibus totum circum se vertere caelum.
nam quod multa fuere in terris semina rerum,
tempore quo primum tellus animalia fudit,
nil tamen est signi mixtas potuisse creari
inter se pecudes compactaque membra animantum,
propterea quia quae de terris nunc quoque abundant
herbarum genera ac fruges arbustaque laeta
non tamen inter se possunt complexa creari,
sed res quaeque suo ritu procedit et omnes
foedere naturae certo discrimina servant.

[¶13] But mortal man
Was then far hardier in the old champaign,
As well he should be, since a hardier earth
Had him begotten; builded too was he
Of bigger and more solid bones within,
And knit with stalwart sinews through the flesh,
Nor easily seized by either heat or cold,
Or alien food or any ail or irk.
And whilst so many lustrums of the sun
Rolled on across the sky, men led a life
After the roving habit of wild beasts.
Not then were sturdy guiders of curved ploughs,
And none knew then to work the fields with iron,
Or plant young shoots in holes of delved loam,
Or lop with hooked knives from off high trees
The boughs of yester-year. What sun and rains
To them had given, what earth of own accord
Created then, was boon enough to glad
Their simple hearts. Mid acorn-laden oaks
Would they refresh their bodies for the nonce;
And the wild berries of the arbute-tree,
Which now thou seest to ripen purple-red
In winter time, the old telluric soil
Would bear then more abundant and more big.
And many coarse foods, too, in long ago
The blooming freshness of the rank young world
Produced, enough for those poor wretches there.
And rivers and springs would summon them of old
To slake the thirst, as now from the great hills
The water's down-rush calls aloud and far
The thirsty generations of the wild.
So, too, they sought the grottos of the Nymphs-
The woodland haunts discovered as they ranged-
From forth of which they knew that gliding rills
With gush and splash abounding laved the rocks,
The dripping rocks, and trickled from above
Over the verdant moss; and here and there
Welled up and burst across the open flats.
As yet they knew not to enkindle fire
Against the cold, nor hairy pelts to use
And clothe their bodies with the spoils of beasts;
But huddled in groves, and mountain-caves, and woods,
And 'mongst the thickets hid their squalid backs,
When driven to flee the lashings of the winds
And the big rains. Nor could they then regard
The general good, nor did they know to use
In common any customs, any laws:
Whatever of booty fortune unto each
Had proffered, each alone would bear away,
By instinct trained for self to thrive and live.
And Venus in the forests then would link
The lovers' bodies; for the woman yielded
Either from mutual flame, or from the man's
Impetuous fury and insatiate lust,
Or from a bribe- as acorn-nuts, choice pears,
Or the wild berries of the arbute-tree.
And trusting wondrous strength of hands and legs,
They'd chase the forest-wanderers, the beasts;
And many they'd conquer, but some few they fled,
A-skulk into their hiding-places.........
With the flung stones and with the ponderous heft
Of gnarled branch. And by the time of night
O'ertaken, they would throw, like bristly boars,
Their wildman's limbs naked upon the earth,
Rolling themselves in leaves and fronded boughs.
Nor would they call with lamentations loud
Around the fields for daylight and the sun,
Quaking and wand'ring in shadows of the night;
But, silent and buried in a sleep, they'd wait
Until the sun with rosy flambeau brought
The glory to the sky. From childhood wont
Ever to see the dark and day begot
In times alternate, never might they be
Wildered by wild misgiving, lest a night
Eternal should possess the lands, with light
Of sun withdrawn forever. But their care
Was rather that the clans of savage beasts
Would often make their sleep-time horrible
For those poor wretches; and, from home y-driven,
They'd flee their rocky shelters at approach
Of boar, the spumy-lipped, or lion strong,
And in the midnight yield with terror up
To those fierce guests their beds of out-spread leaves.

> Latin: Et genus humanum multo fuit illud in arvis
durius, ut decuit, tellus quod dura creasset,
et maioribus et solidis magis ossibus intus
fundatum, validis aptum per viscera nervis,
nec facile ex aestu nec frigore quod caperetur
nec novitate cibi nec labi corporis ulla.
multaque per caelum solis volventia lustra
volgivago vitam tractabant more ferarum.
nec robustus erat curvi moderator aratri
quisquam, nec scibat ferro molirier arva
nec nova defodere in terram virgulta neque altis
arboribus veteres decidere falcibus ramos.
quod sol atque imbres dederant, quod terra crearat
sponte sua, satis id placabat pectora donum.
glandiferas inter curabant corpora quercus
plerumque; et quae nunc hiberno tempore cernis
arbita puniceo fieri matura colore,
plurima tum tellus etiam maiora ferebat.
multaque praeterea novitas tum florida mundi
pabula dura tulit, miseris mortalibus ampla.
at sedare sitim fluvii fontesque vocabant,
ut nunc montibus e magnis decursus aquai
claricitat late sitientia saecla ferarum.
denique nota vagis silvestria templa tenebant
nympharum, quibus e scibant umore fluenta
lubrica proluvie larga lavere umida saxa,
umida saxa, super viridi stillantia musco,
et partim plano scatere atque erumpere campo.
necdum res igni scibant tractare neque uti
pellibus et spoliis corpus vestire ferarum,
sed nemora atque cavos montis silvasque colebant
et frutices inter condebant squalida membra
verbera ventorum vitare imbrisque coacti.
nec commune bonum poterant spectare neque ullis
moribus inter se scibant nec legibus uti.
quod cuique obtulerat praedae fortuna, ferebat
sponte sua sibi quisque valere et vivere doctus.
et Venus in silvis iungebat corpora amantum;
conciliabat enim vel mutua quamque cupido
vel violenta viri vis atque inpensa libido
vel pretium, glandes atque arbita vel pira lecta.
et manuum mira freti virtute pedumque
consectabantur silvestria saecla ferarum
missilibus saxis et magno pondere clavae.
multaque vincebant, vitabant pauca latebris;
saetigerisque pares subus silvestria membra
nuda dabant terrae nocturno tempore capti,
circum se foliis ac frondibus involventes.
nec plangore diem magno solemque per agros
quaerebant pavidi palantes noctis in umbris,
sed taciti respectabant somnoque sepulti,
dum rosea face sol inferret lumina caelo.
a parvis quod enim consuerant cernere semper
alterno tenebras et lucem tempore gigni,
non erat ut fieri posset mirarier umquam
nec diffidere, ne terras aeterna teneret
nox in perpetuum detracto lumine solis.
sed magis illud erat curae, quod saecla ferarum
infestam miseris faciebant saepe quietem.
eiectique domo fugiebant saxea tecta
spumigeri suis adventu validique leonis
atque intempesta cedebant nocte paventes
hospitibus saevis instrata cubilia fronde.